The global new energy vehicle market is ushering in a bright moment. An obvious phenomenon is that global sales of new energy vehicles have risen year after year.
In 2018, the global sales of new energy passenger cars were 2 million units, and according to the data released by Clean Technica recently, the global sales of new energy passenger cars in 2021 will be nearly 6.5 million, an increase of 108% over 2020.
Among them, Chinese car brands have also achieved remarkable results in the past year: 8 Chinese car brand models have successfully ranked among the top 20 in global sales, and BYD ranked second with sales of 593,900 vehicles, second only to Tesla.
In the past few years, the development of global new energy vehicles has continued to improve, and the improvement of many technologies of China's new energy vehicles has provided opportunities for China's new energy vehicles to go to sea, and many automobile brands have actively planned to export new energy vehicles to overseas markets.
According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, China will export a total of 310,000 new energy vehicles in 2021, an increase of 3 times year-on-year. In addition to the sharp increase in export sales, China's own brand of new energy vehicles is accelerating into the markets of developed countries.
It is worth noting that among the seven major auto markets in the world, the European market has become one of the most frequently mentioned and most layout actions of Chinese auto brands intending to go to the international market.
The question arises from this, why do many Chinese auto independent brands take Europe as the first stop at sea? In the era of rapid development of new energy vehicles, in the European market, where the automobile market is highly developed, can they achieve the lofty ideal of product output?
The new era of cars going to sea
It is not a new thing for Chinese auto brands to try to sell their products overseas. As early as the beginning of the 21st century, local car manufacturers set off an overseas gold rush.
At that time, Geely, Chery, Great Wall, ZTE, etc. were the first independent brands that dared to eat crabs. They have made certain achievements in exporting products to nearly 100 countries and regions around the world by signing agreements with local enterprises in exporting countries.
After nearly 10 years of export promotion, the annual export volume of mainland automobiles exceeded 1 million units for the first time in 2012, but the automobile export areas are mainly concentrated in relatively backward countries and regions such as Asia and Africa, and the impact on the European and American markets is limited.
With the decline of fuel vehicles and the rise of new energy vehicles, China's auto independent brands have launched a completely different offensive against overseas markets in new market opportunities.
One of the most obvious features is that more and more independent brands have joined the army of going overseas. With the growth of new energy vehicles, new car-making forces such as Aichi, Weilai, Xiaopeng and other enterprises have selected the battlefield for the export of new energy vehicles as Europe together with traditional car companies such as Geely, SAIC and Great Wall.
The European automobile market is a piece of fat in the eyes of China's independent automobile brands, and it is also a highland that cannot be conquered for a long time.
In the past, Chinese independent brands have long transported hundreds of thousands of cars to countries around the world through freighters in the form of small-batch export trade, and then sold through local dealers. Although this method can greatly reduce costs, the lack of self-built sales and service networks in the local area not only fails to meet the diverse needs of local consumers, but also reduces the awareness of Chinese auto brands in overseas markets.
In addition, the low rating of some Chinese brand models in the EU crash test in the past has made the European market have a long-term negative impression of The quality of Chinese cars. In order to open the local market more smoothly, some independent brands have tried to sell "Chinese brand" cars through the acquisition of well-known European car brands. Once, Geely's acquisition of Volvo was seen as helping it enter the European market.
The car companies that focus on smart cars in this round are more willing to show the identity of Chinese car brands to enter the European market, and at the same time, they are also trying to provide their own services for European consumers.
At the Munich Motor Show in September last year, Great Wall Motors said that it would enter the European luxury automobile market and the new energy vehicle market, and would also establish R&D centers and production bases in Europe; Xiaopeng and Weilai would build their own sales and service systems in the European market. Among them, Xiaopeng Motors recently announced that it has opened its first self-operated store in Stockholm, Sweden, in addition to the Chinese market.
The high-cost self-built sales service system has also driven a relative increase in product prices: the price of the Xiaopeng G3i is about 256,000 yuan; the starting price of the NIO ES8 standard battery pack (75 degrees) model is about 460,000 yuan. In the past, due to the wholesale export of independent brand car companies, the price of their products was relatively low.
More importantly, this time, China's independent brands will also bring more innovative services to the European market. For example, in addition to building a substation in Norway, NIO will also copy the user operation experience that has been verified and successful in the Chinese market to Norway to create a community starting from the car.
It can be seen that the strategy of China's independent auto brands for overseas markets is changing from wholesaler to retailer, and trying to provide more diversified special services to integrate into the local auto market.
The new way of playing for independent brands seems to have been smallly effective. In November last year, Aller Media, an authoritative media organization in Norway, announced the results of the 2022 annual automobile index survey, and Xiaopeng Motors won the "Most Famous New Car Brand of the Year Award".
Wind and waves on the voyage
Although Chinese independent brands have entered the European market with great fanfare, most of them will currently choose Norway, a non-EU country, as the first stop at sea.
"The Norwegian electric vehicle market is relatively mature, and users do not have a special preference for brands." Fu Qiang, founder and chairman of Aiways, has explained why Chinese car companies tend to give priority to entering the Norwegian market.
However, although the Norwegian government has vigorously supported the development of new energy vehicles in many aspects, reducing the overall difficulty of automobile exports, and independent brands have gradually achieved certain results in Norway, entering the EU market will be a bigger stage for China's own brands. From the perspective of policies, market environment, and product requirements, it seems that Chinese car companies will not be smooth sailing on the road to conquering the EU market.
The first is the policy aspect.
In order to limit carbon emissions from passenger cars, the EU plans to establish a unified life-cycle carbon emission assessment methodology and data statistics system by 2023, and requires every vehicle exported to the EU in 2025 to account for its life-cycle carbon emissions.
This means that China's own brand car companies must strictly control the carbon emissions of the whole vehicle during production, assembly and transportation within the EU standard, which is currently not well prepared in this regard for China's own brands, which need to invest extremely high costs to meet the EU carbon emission standards.
Secondly, in terms of market environment, the automobile market in EU countries is highly developed, and the strong ones are like a forest, and European consumers have higher requirements for the product quality and service capabilities of automobile manufacturers under the choice of local brands such as Volkswagen, BMW, mercedes-Benz, etc.
Previously, Honda, Toyota, Ford and other car brands had tried to enter the European market, but after years of efforts, their share in the European car market was still low. According to the sales statistics of European car brands in 2020, the European market share of Honda, Toyota and Ford is 5.8%, 0.7% and 5.5% respectively, while the market share of European domestic automobile groups such as Volkswagen and PSA is as high as 25.4% and 14.4%.
Thierry Dombreval, a former European operations officer at Toyota, has summarized that the two major lessons of foreign brands entering the European auto market are relying on local importers to open overseas markets and brand acquisitions. The former is not conducive to automakers to develop sales strategies and expand brand influence for target markets, and the latter's longer acquisition process and capital investment will affect the company's performance.
Although many Chinese independent car brands are currently trying to face European consumers, they are still in the minority, and most of them have not completely stepped out of the above model. Although Xiaopeng Motors has established its own stores in Sweden, it has also reached agreements with two car dealers in Sweden and the Netherlands to help it sell its products.
In terms of product requirements, the relatively narrow roads in Europe make local consumers prefer smaller passenger cars, while the passenger cars sold in the Chinese market are relatively large, which means that if the original production line is not transformed under the premise of export sales, the models suitable for export to Europe by independent brands will be limited.
The layers of obstacles formed from top to bottom make the road of new energy vehicles exported to Europe by independent brands destined to be full of thorns.
Behind the pile of car companies going out to sea
For the expansion of overseas markets, independent brands naturally have a clear understanding of the potential risks and well-thought-out strategic planning, so why do they still prefer tiger mountains and choose the extremely difficult European market?
To some extent, at this time, some car companies that have started up with new energy vehicles seem to focus more on expanding the global influence of the brand than on short-term sales.
Weilai Automobile once said: "We will make Norwegian users satisfied as the goal, and market sales are only a result." To some extent, this statement shows that WEILAI pays more attention to establishing a sound sales service system in the Norwegian market, rather than selling products.
The current European automotive market offers its own brands the perfect opportunity to showcase high-quality products and services.
The emergence of new energy vehicles has gradually disappeared the technical advantages of fuel vehicles of European local car brands, providing opportunities for the development of China's automobile industry. The successful landing of New Forces of Chinese car manufacturing in the United States and the continuous improvement of sales also show that China's local car manufacturers have a certain strength.
After several years of development and exploration, local car manufacturers have gradually identified their respective positioning and advantages, and differentiated products and services have enhanced brand recognition. For example, Xiaopeng Automobile focuses on intelligence, the ultimate user service of Weilai Automobile, and the Great Wall Euler mainly focuses on the female user market, which undoubtedly has certain advantages for its product export.
The improvement of products and services of independent brands makes it have the strength of certain product exports, and the European market is also showing a rare market window period.
Lynk & Co said that thanks to the green travel concept in Europe, many European countries have introduced a timetable for the suspension of fuel vehicles, making the new energy vehicle market larger. In addition, in recent years, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in Europe has shown a steady upward trend, and Chinese enterprises that laid out the new energy automobile industry earlier will have a first-mover advantage here, which is more conducive to market cultivation and competition. Therefore, in view of the characteristics of the European market, Lynk & Co has launched a variety of plug-in hybrids and hybrid vehicles.
If you compare the sales of european new energy vehicle brands in 2020 and 2021, it is not difficult to find that the ranking of each brand model has changed greatly, and many new faces have appeared in the list in 2021.
Due to the lack of local car companies in some Eastern European countries, the resistance of Chinese independent brands entering the local area is relatively small. For example, the total sales of Chinese brand cars in Russia in 2021 reached 115,700 units, doubling from 2020.
The respective needs of Chinese independent brands, the European market provides fleeting opportunities, enhancing the confidence of Chinese auto brands to go to Europe.
Stones are blunted and blunted
Although there are many dangers ahead, some Chinese independent brands have launched products that meet their standards in response to the relevant regulations of the European market.
For example, NIO ES8 obtained EU vehicle certification; Xiaopeng G9 passed the EU WVTA full-vehicle type certification standard and the EU vehicle environmental protection 3R certification, and AIWAYS U5 obtained the EU full-vehicle model type certification issued by T V Rheinland.
China's own brands have been preparing for the European market for a long time, and their products have the strength to export to Europe. In the future, after accumulating enough experience in the European single country market and in-depth understanding of the European automobile market, China's own brands may have new deeds.
At the very least, tesla model 3 and model Y, which are three car brands exported from China, and dacia Spring models co-created by Dongfeng and Renault-Nissan, have successfully entered the top five new energy vehicle sales in Europe last December, proving that Chinese manufacturing is not weaker than the international level.
Then entering the European auto market is an opportunity to show China's new energy vehicle technology and strength.
Stones are blunted and blunted. China's independent auto brands that have successively completed self-transcendence are ushering in a greater battlefield.
Leifeng networkLeifeng networkLeifeng network